Saturday, May 9, 2015

Another NZ Summer - Part One

Time has once again moved along and we find ourselves saying where did it go?

It was a good "New Zealand" summer.

Plenty of nice warm sunny days mixed in with the Wellington usual.

We did of course miss the single hottest week in Wellington as we had traveled back to the States to do our first show of 2015.

The show was in Portland, Oregon so we were able to head over a little early and stop in Seattle. We had a great 4 days catching up with some family and friends. We even got to watch the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl from the comfort of Dad's sofa on Bainbridge Island. And what a game it was. Unbelievable...Truly insane final 10 minutes.

We then drove down to Portland to begin set-up for Portland Wizard World. The show went well and we had a good time.

We stayed a few extra days and caught up with our good friends Shari and Cami who had recently relocated to Portland from Wellington. We visited Powell's Books and indulged in a dozen Voodoo donuts. (oooo belly ache) We also got to catch up with some of our other friends at a lovely dinner that Lee Moyer and Venetia hosted at their home. = Good friends + good food and much laughter shared.

We finally returned to Wellington to enjoy the remaining days of summer. Which included a fun evening of Star Trek in the Park. - "There are Klingons on the starboard bough" (you know the words)

At the beginning of March Eric sister Sheila came to visit NZ for the first time, so we took some time off to spend with her and showed her some of our favorite places. We met her in Rotorua and visited Hobbiton in Matamata, went Zorbing, and spent a few hours walking through Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland.

At Hobbiton we did get rained on a bit, but that didn't slow us down and were even treated to the appearance of a rainbow over the Green Dragon Inn towards the end of the visit. The Ale, Cider and treats were amazing as well.

Sunday morning we dropped Eric off at the airport as he had to get back to work. Sheila and I drove the scenic 5 hours back down to Wellington with a short stop at Lake Taupo.

In Wellington we got to show Sheila all around the Weta Workshop, the two of us spent a nice day shopping on Cuba Street, and she got to spend some time exploring the Te Papa museum.

We then all flew down to Nelson for a long 4-day weekend. We had great weather and spent our time strolling around the shops and galleries of Nelson. We spent one of the days in the Able Tasman National Park. (one of my favorite places) Before heading back to the states, Sheila went on for a few more days exploring the west coast of the South Island and Queenstown on her own.

It has been really nice having our friends Cassie and Chris be able to take care of Myztyc while we have been traveling. They are really enjoying New Zealand and working at Weta Workshop. They also drove up to join us in Matamata for the visit to Hobbiton. Chris captured the best shot of the rainbow.

It has been a very busy start to 2015 for the Workshop and most of the crew has been working long hours, 6 days a week.

At the beginning of April we were once again off on travels. I headed to Melbourne, Australia for our first Supanova of 2015. This was the first show where I was training our new Events Manager. From there we went to Calgary, Canada where Eric also joined us. Both shows went well and we had a good time. Warren Dion Smith - one of Weta's Prosthetic/Make-up artists has been traveling with us and has been doing prosthetic demos at the shows.

After Calgary, Eric and I got a short break and headed off to Los Angeles and San Diego to see some family and friends (and grab some In-n-Out Burger) before heading to Minneapolis, Minnesota for another show. Apologies to those we did not see. It was a quick visit and we will be back again in July.

We also managed to miss another Wellington earthquake (5.8 - 6.2)while we were stateside. A good shaker but no damage we were told. And completely overshadowed once the Nepal quake hit.

Next stop was Minneapolis. We got to catch up with a friend and his his family. We originally met in Seattle and then he and his family managed to visit us in NZ our second year here. It was good to catch-up and see a little bit of the city.

Someone will have to explain this one to me at some point

The show here was a smaller show, but very well received by the fans. The media had some fun as well.

Before leaving to go back to NZ, I did make a stop to see the Mall of America. The thing is immense. Even Peeps has it's own store. Really?

I learned that Charles Schulz was born in Minneapolis, MN

I have now returned to Wellington. However, Eric will be back around the 27th as he is doing two more shows. One in Philadelphia and the other in St. Louis. He will have a short break between the shows and will head back to San Diego for another quick visit and no doubt a few more In-n-Out Burgers.